


What It Takes to Survive

by ohanotherday



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Regency, Arranged Marriage, F/F, F/M, Female John Blake, Genderswap, Incest, Pregnancy, Pseudo-Incest, Rule 63, lots of pairings but no love triangles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:15:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24466303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohanotherday/pseuds/ohanotherday
Summary: Bruce and his first wife Rachel adopted Robin long ago. Now he helps Robin through her heats until he can find her an appropriate suitor for her to marry.
Relationships: Bane (DCU)/John Blake, John Blake/Bruce Wayne, John Blake/Talia al Ghul, Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne/John Blake
Kudos: 16





	What It Takes to Survive

**Author's Note:**

> I recognize that there are a lot of pairings, but I promise there are no awkward love triangles. I’m not sure if that’s a selling point or not in this case, but I just needed to clarify.
> 
> I wrote this fic a while ago and decided I might as well post it since it's quarantine time.
> 
> The title comes from the song [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQndQV9E8C8). The song isn’t the right mood, but it sort of ties in, and, most importantly, I had it on repeat while editing.

Robin presses a hand against her stomach, hard, before sitting up in bed.

“Dad?”

She waits, and Bruce comes in, tired, sleep deprived, but he sits down on the bed. He unbuttons his shirt and pulls it up over his head. Then he undoes his pants and pulls them off.

Robin pushes the covers down, and Bruce climbs in, letting the blankets pool around their waists. He holds her for a moment, presses a kiss against her forehead, and guides them back down so they’re laying down.

“Already feeling the heat, or give it a few minutes?”

Robin waited until the last minute to call him, but she feels bad. He wants to sleep. He should be sleeping. He never sleeps. She’s taking him away from a rare occurrence. “Maybe in a few minutes?”

Bruce nods, but he’s already pulling up her nightdress. He knows how she lies. He’s known her since she was little. Since her birth parents both passed away and he adopted her with his wife Rachel, now long dead too. Even when he was off traveling the world and only had letters to communicate, he could read her better than anyone.

He’s not hard yet, getting there, but not yet. She knows because he’s pressed up against her. His body is a solid wall of muscle. His face is so close that all the air she’s breathing has already been breathed by him. He’s stroking himself to hardness. She can hear it, can feel every pant on her cheek as he breathes.

He climbs up over her, settles in between her legs. He holds himself up on his elbows, but he doesn’t bother with keeping the rest of his weight from pressing down on her. She realizes too late that she should’ve taken off her nightdress. She had been too distracted, but now she regrets how it makes everything doubly hot. She fumbles with a few buttons, and Bruce waits and watches. He’s more alert now.

He kisses her once on the cheek, smooths hair away from her face, and then lines himself up and pushes in. She lets out a loud moan. She always moans too loud. She shouldn’t be surprised by the feel of his cock, considering that he’s always taken care of her heats for the last two years, but she is.

He keeps fucking her, and she holds onto him. She grips his shoulders tight, knowing her fingers will leave marks. She wants to pull him flush to her, and when he somehow leans even closer, she wraps her arms around him. She wants to hug him, to thank him, but she doesn’t say a word. She’s too afraid to speak every time Bruce is in her bed, inside her. She’s afraid she’ll say the wrong thing, that she’ll upset him, and he’ll go away.

When he starts to knot, he flips them over. It pulls at her, but now she’s free from underneath him. He kisses her several times before cupping a hand behind her head and holding her close. She thinks he might fall asleep, but she knows he won’t. She does.

\---

Life goes back to normal after her heats.

\---

There are always several dozen parties to attend, and so they go. Robin stays around with people her own age or trails after her father. And then there’s Talia, one day not existing, and the next day the talk of the town.

Talia is new and beautiful and Robin stops in her tracks when she sees her. She’s not wearing the sort of clothes that are common in these upper-class social circles. It looks good, but it’s different. The fabrics are more luxurious, richer. Talia is watching Bruce, and that’s not new. A lot of people like watching Bruce. But that look in her eye. That’s something to watch.

Bruce and Talia dance a lot, a lot, more than is appropriate, and they talk, and Bruce even brings Talia over to Robin to introduce them. Robin smiles and Talia is very nice. She’s very articulate and she’s been to a lot of places.

Robin has never traveled anywhere, so she sits and listens and is captivated by everything Talia has to say. She’s almost disappointed when they have to leave. Talia kisses Bruce on the cheek and kisses Robin on the cheek and promises to call on them for a visit.

\---

Talia does come to visit them. Robin is both shocked and surprised. Nobody ever snags Bruce for long—or so quickly. Alfred has sighed that Bruce is determined to court every eligible omega in the vicinity but never follow through to marriage.

But Talia has Bruce wrapped around her pinky, and it’s only been a day. Robin can’t really judge though. She’s just as impressed by everything that Talia has to say.

Later in the day the nursemaid brings out Bruce’s other children, Richard and Jason. Talia is equally sweet with them, which is easy because they’re babies. Richard can barely walk. Mostly he tumbles. And Jason is still newborn sweet.

“You gave birth to them, Robin, right?”

Robin gives a quick nod. She never liked drawing people’s attention to this fact.

“Well, I think your little brothers are very precious. Good babies.”

Robin doesn’t know how to respond to that. Her face goes through a range of emotions, from awkwardness to shy acceptance of the compliment.

Most alphas aren’t like Bruce. They take care of their omega children’s heats, but they don’t consider the resulting offspring from any heats their _actual heirs_. They’ll raise them with the other kids, but then they might send them away to relatives or boarding schools.

They’ll expect them to do well and get a good career, but most members of upper-class society are more concerned by children produced by an actual married couple.

In the eyes of the elite, legitimate children _always_ rank higher than bastards.

Most people trying to court Bruce take one look at Robin and the bastards he’s legitimized and decide they don’t want to compete for Bruce’s attention. But it’s never been like that with Bruce and Robin.

In his opinion, she’s too young to be married off, even if she can have children. The typical age of marriage is twenty-one, but she knows other people who are seventeen and already married, while she is sixteen, but he shakes his head, argues that her body may be heat ready, but she’s still a child.

Bruce doesn’t hire her an alpha to help her through her heats—doesn’t trust that they won’t try to bond her and then try to blackmail them. And he won’t put her on suppressants if she doesn’t want suppressants, and she doesn’t.

She spent years at an orphanage run by nuns and priests before Rachel and Bruce picked her out of all the other broken children. Too much of her formative years were spent being told that suppressants were wrong.

And so Bruce takes care of her heats, because that’s what all the alphas do when there isn’t another option. He takes care of her and accepts all the resulting children.

But Talia smiles. She seems nice and sincere. Robin can’t help but smile back.

\---

Bruce and Talia are quick to get married. It feels so sudden. It’s a whirlwind romance. Talia stays with them for a month, and then suddenly they’re planning a wedding and a reception.

The church wedding is large, but the reception is much quieter. There are Robin and the boys, and several of Bruce’s favorite associates from his company. Talia has people as well. The chief of police is there. But overall, it’s quiet. It’s intimate.

\---

Soon comes Robin’s next heat. And she’s worried and a little of afraid. She doesn’t know if Talia will go into a panic and force Bruce to give Robin a talk about hiring an alpha. She supposes she could go through a heat alone. That wouldn’t be so bad. As long as they don’t send her away.

She can’t bear the thought of being sent away for any period of time—whether for heats or for a boarding school. Her childhood was spent being sent from relative to relative and then neighbor to neighbor before she finally ended up in an orphanage. Bruce and Rachel offered her so much stability, and Robin doesn’t want to go back to the unknown just yet.

Bruce and Talia don’t bring it up. Robin’s heats are like clockwork, always following a schedule. Bruce has to know that her heat is coming up. But, of course, it decides to deviate from the norm and comes a little quicker than expected. She goes to bed early, and wakes up in the middle of it. She’s not sure if she should call her father. She doesn’t know if that’s allowed anymore.

She sits and debates for a while and then finally calls him. He appears, and he doesn’t even look like he’s been sleeping. He looks at her and presses a kiss against the top of her forehead. He sits with her for a little bit and then says, “Would you be upset if Talia came in too?”

Robin shakes her head, because that’s the last thing she expected, but she’s fine with it. He leaves for a few minutes and comes back with Talia.

Talia smiles and sits on the other side of the bed. She talks quietly with Robin, asks how she’s doing, and Robin tries to answer, but she’s a little out of it. She ends up laying back down on her bed and closing her eyes.

Robin doesn’t think she would’ve fallen asleep, but she wakes up maybe half an hour later to Bruce and Talia quietly talking. Talia asks Bruce about typical heat things for Robin—what is expected, what has Bruce done in the past to help, and what is best for Robin.

But then Bruce notices Robin is awake, and Robin knows she’s gone. She’s wet, wet, wet. Her body won’t put up any kind of resistance, is already greedily awaiting for a cock. Bruce is naked, and he moves to push the covers out of the way.

It’s Talia who stops Bruce before he can settle over Robin though. She reaches over to unbutton Robin’s nightdress, and helps her pull her arms free. And then Bruce goes back to settling in between Robin’s legs so he can fuck her.

The skin on skin contact seems to light Robin on fire. Slickness leaks out, and she wants to beg him to fuck her deeper. She wants her alpha to fill her up. She wants to be covered by his scent, both inside and out. She spreads her legs wider, clings to Bruce as she closes her eyes.

\---

Bruce always acts like nothing is amiss after Robin’s heats, and Talia is the same. Talia and Robin sit together and work on projects. They’re alone together, working on embroidery. Talia doesn’t need to make her own. She’s unbelievably wealthy. She has tapestries of the finest materials, brightly colored intricate designs on dark canvases. But Talia likes embroidering with Robin, so they do this together.

“Have you ever considered marriage?”

Robin pauses. She glances up at Talia and then looks back down at her work. “Well yes, in the abstract. I don’t have anyone I’m interested in, but…” Robin shrugs a shoulder, “I’m not opposed to it.”

“Good, well I have someone in mind for you.”

“Oh?” Robin lowers her sewing work. She’s not mad, she’s just confused. Robin tries to work her needle, and accidentally stabs herself. It doesn’t bleed. Perhaps, she’s a little mad. Mostly hurt. “Well talk to my father about it, I guess.”

“I have.”

Robin makes a wounded noise as the needle nicks her again, but the noise does not stem from her skin being pricked. She was used to Rachel and Bruce making decisions but Talia is delivering an important announcement like it’s nothing.

“So, I’m getting married.” Robin puts down her work off to the side and crosses her arms. “When?”

“Oh, not for several years.” Talia glances up and tilts her head. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” She’s sulking. She doesn’t want to sulk, but she does. She reclines into the chair, slouches. She won’t complain to Talia, because Talia is just being a responsible parent by finding an eligible suitor for Robin, something Bruce has been failing to do for the last year. “You’re just really bad at delivering news.”

“Oh,” Talia says softly, like she couldn’t have possibly realized. “Sorry.”

Robin doesn’t want to admit she is upset by the idea of Talia trying to get rid of her. It’s been so long since she had a mother, and even though Talia is only ten years older, she would like that relationship to last a little longer. “So who is he?”

“He’s a distant cousin. He doesn’t look much like me. Blonde, when he grows his hair out, blue eyes, which are very handsome. Tall, maybe taller than your father. He’s only a few years younger than your father, but I don’t think that’ll matter too much. You’re a smart girl, so you’ll get along well.”

“Okay,” Robin responds because she doesn’t know what else to say.

“Does that sound acceptable?” Talia smiles at her. “Do you have a type? Does he sound handsome to you?”

Robin’s mouth is pursed. She tries to smile to placate Talia. Even with the attempt, she knows it doesn’t look anything more than a sneer. After a moment, she drops the act.

Robin shrugs her shoulders. “Is he kind?”

That actually makes Talia laugh, and her wide smile melts into something softer. “Yes, he can be kind. He’ll be kind to you. He raised me, but he sees me still as a little girl. And you’re even younger than me, so he would take one look at you and think of you as a newborn babe. So I propose a long engagement.”

Robin nods in agreement.

\---

At some point Robin has another heat and Bruce isn’t home. It’s early again, and Bruce was called out of town. Talia pulls Robin into the master bedroom and settles Robin down on top of the covers on Bruce’s side.

Talia pulls out boxes from the closet. She sets the boxes down on the bed, and then she helps Robin undress. She lays down next to Robin. When Robin’s heat starts in full swing, Talia scoots up to the headboard, shoves the pillows behind her, and pulls Robin in front of her.

Talia sits behind Robin, with Robin’s back to Talia’s front, and wraps her arms around Robin’s waist. Eventually one of her hands dip down in between Robin’s legs and press and push against Robin’s slit, eventually parting those lips so she can toy with Robin’s clit. With a gasp, Robin drops her head back onto Talia’s shoulder.

She very rarely touches herself like this. Sometimes she does, while she waits for Bruce to appear. Mostly she holds out, trying to prolong the start of the heat for as long as possible. She hates seeming too needy. Too desperate. Too wanton. Too slick and ready. She squirms in Talia’s embrace, shakes when her body finally finds climax.

She almost misses how Talia moves her other hand from her waist to grab a phallus and press it inside of her. She’s full and feels euphoric, and she ends up falling back and pressing Talia back into the cocoon of pillows and wanting to sleep in Talia’s arms.

She twists and turns until she can press her face against Talia’s bosom, and tries to fall asleep. Talia has to readjust the phallus so it doesn’t slip out, and then Robin passes out.

\---

A few weeks later, Talia comes into Robin’s bedroom. They’re sitting and talking and Robin finally wonders out loud if Talia has been putting off heats so she can wait a little longer to have children.

When Robin had first met Talia, she had no idea what she was. She couldn’t tell alpha, beta, or omega. With the wedding, she had assumed either beta or omega. But now that they’ve lived together, she knows. Talia is most definitely an omega. And an omega should have heats.

Talia tilts her head at her. “I’m barren. I can’t have any children.”

Robin frowns. “How do you know?”

“Because I don’t have all the parts. I have a womb. But there are no ovaries, nothing to help make a child. They were removed. For reasons I would rather not say…” Talia waves her hand. She doesn’t want Robin to ask questions, but Robin has a million running through her head. “Finding you and your father was the most fortunate arrangement I could find. Your father doesn’t need any heirs from me. He already has two from you, and you’ll probably give him three more.”

“You’re fine that they’re not your children by blood?”

“It doesn’t matter. I can’t have children, so it’s a moot point. And I consider all of you my children anyways.”

“Well, that’s good.” Robin wants to comfort Talia, but she doesn’t seem to look like she needs any comfort. Robin wrings her hands and feels dumb and young for bringing up Talia’s lack of heats, even though she had no chance of ever coming to the conclusion that Talia had been _sterilized_.

Robin stands, and Talia follows her until they are face to face.

“You are most precious to me,” Talia says, soft and gentle like it’s something she’s said to Robin all her life.

Talia smiles at Robin. She’s so close to her that Talia hugs her easily. It’s a long hug, and then Talia leans back and smiles and kisses Robin on the mouth. Robin’s mouth is already parted, and Talia slips her tongue in easily.

The kiss lasts longer than the hug did. Robin’s chest is heaving when they finally pull apart. Her eyes are wide, but Talia is still looking at her same as before—fondly, tenderly. She leans in once more to kiss Robin again, soft as before, slipping her tongue in same as before, and then pulls away.

“Thank you, Robin.”

\---

Eventually Robin gets pregnant again. She’s barely showing at all, so she doesn’t ask for Talia and Bruce to have her previous maternity dresses to be brought out of storage—especially since she knows Talia will simply say they should make her a new wardrobe if she thought Robin felt like she was being constrained in her clothes.

But Alfred notices when the seams of her dress start getting too strained, and brings in a seamstress to make a few new dresses to be adjusted for the new season.

And so Robin wears a pretty new dress at the first party of the season. It is really nice, and Robin is thankful Alfred encouraged it. Most of her dresses are dark, shades of black and blue. But this one is light and white. It’s meant to go with the theme of the first few parties.

Robin is not fond of socializing, so Talia and Bruce make sure she finds a nice seat at a small card table outside, and then they go and mingle. Talia is amazing at socializing, and Bruce’s stock has gone up in the last five months of their marriage. It’s good for the family.

Eventually dinner is going to be served. Robin begins to leave the card table as her friends hurry up to get good seats. She stands up last and feels a little dizzy and almost falls back into her chair, but strong arms come up to save her and wrap around her waist.

She takes a moment to catch her breath, and then glances up to look at her savior. He’s tall, and so stern looking. She almost feels the need to apologize. He doesn’t say anything, but he picks up her water glass and hands it to her. She takes it and drinks a sip, and then he places the glass back down on the table.

“Are you able to walk?”

Robin nods. “Yes.”

“Would you like me to escort you?”

Robin wants to say no, but she nods her head again. She takes his arm. She looks up to see her friends glancing back at her, faces frowning, but she waves them off. Her escort is a very serious man, but he is very concerned about her health. They end up sitting next to each other, because he pulls out a chair for her and she’s too polite to run away and sit somewhere else.

She looks for Bruce and Talia, but can’t spot them, probably wrapped up in an unofficial business deal, so she accepts that she’s going to have to make small talk with the man. He looks at her like he wants to examine her. She knows he must know she’s pregnant. He had his hand over the bump, and she doesn’t think he’s stupid.

They’re halfway into their first course when Robin realizes she never introduced herself. It’s poor manners, and she should know better. The others haven’t asked for his title and name yet, already deciding he isn’t worthy of their time, but he just saved her from a humiliating fall. She wants to know his name.

Most everyone is talking, and so Robin turns to the man and says as quietly as she can, “I’m sorry, my lord. I just realized we haven’t been introduced.”

And he smiles. He actually smiles. She still feels a little embarrassed, but his amusement is contagious and she grins back at him.

“Lord Dorrance Bane.”

“Lady Robin John Blake Wayne.” She nods her head quickly in a brief semblance of a curtsy. She doesn’t think he cares for such formalities, but still. He helped her earlier.

“It is a pleasure to meet you.” He doesn’t say anything for a moment, but he keeps looking at her like he wants to, so she doesn’t move away or respond just yet. “I know so few people here, so I appreciate that you are giving me your attention.”

Robin grins again, and she knows her grin is the kind when her face gets a little scrunched, dimples going deep and crinkles forming around the corners of her eyes, but she’s pleased he’s pleased. She can’t help that she’s a little bit of a brownnoser. She didn’t get enough positive attention when she was younger, and now she just laps it all up. She goes back to her food.

As the rest of the dinner courses get served, conversation picks up. She doesn’t have much to add to the conversation. Bane sat them farther away from her friends, so it’s mostly older bonded pairs near her. But still she tries. It’s like with Richard. She has nothing much to say to a toddler, but she pretends to be fascinated with whatever he’s fascinated with.

Eventually though the subject gets onto merchant ships and industry, and Robin actually can discuss that a little. Her father has the leading industry in coal and steel and a dozen other entrepreneurships. She surprises even herself with her knowledge about rules and regulations.

The upper-class elite love talking about hypothetical situations, but she grew up in the Narrows, with the poorest of the poor, so she has more than just a few opinions about how workers should be treated. She’s seen living conditions firsthand, and doesn’t mind shocking a bunch of rich assholes. Bane shushes the others when they start to cut her out of the conversation, and she smiles at him in thanks each time.

After the dinner, she asks Bane if he would like to escort her back to her parents. He nods. He spots Talia and Bruce first, and he leads them across the hall.

Talia is smiling, but when she spots the two of them, her whole face lights up. She hugs Bane to her close. While Bane and Bruce shake hands, she pulls Robin aside.

“Bane is my cousin,” Talia whispers. Her face is full of meaning, and Robin realizes that Bane is the distant cousin, the one she thinks Robin should marry.

Suddenly Robin wants to run away, but then music begins. It starts out lively and Talia lets out a wistful sigh. With a laugh, Bruce asks Talia to dance, and she perks up and offers her hand.

Bane does not ask Robin to dance, but she wouldn’t have agreed. She’s not sure if she could stomach that. She trails after him for a bit, and he follows after her when she starts to wander away. He seems perfectly content to keep her nearby.

Eventually a slower waltz starts to play, and Bane asks her. She agrees, and then they’re dancing. But she can’t help but assess him the whole time. She knows the steps by heart, thanks to Bruce and Alfred and all the tutors.

She examines his clothes and posture and looks for anything odd. His clothes are new, so perhaps his money is new, or perhaps he keeps up with the latest trends. His posture is good. It’s stiff, but he holds himself upright. Not quite like a soldier. Maybe he was one though.

She tries to determine what it means by the way he holds her waist, the way he holds her hand. It’s light pressure. Barely even there. Is he afraid of breaking her? Or has he never danced with many omegas before? Does he not know what is allowed? Does he not know what might be considered inappropriate? Is he afraid of ruining her reputation or of protecting his own?

Mostly she can’t stop thinking about how he’s a grown man and an alpha. He’s twice her age. She gets so overwhelmed by the fact that this is the man she’s probably going to end up marrying that she’s thankful when Bruce cuts in at the next song and asks to dance with her. She curtsies at Bane, and then lets Bruce pull her into his arms.

He has that smile that asks what’s wrong, and she hates it. Nobody is allowed to guilt him into being honest, but he guilts people into being honest all the time.

“That’s the man Talia wants me to marry.”

“I know. Was he nice to you?”

“So far, yes.” She pulls back a little. “Do you have any dirt on him?”

Bruce laughs. “I’ve found nothing about him that makes me concerned.”

“Would I still have to marry him if you did?”

“The marriage contract would allow you to dissolve the agreement if anything came out like that.”

And Robin stares at her father and wonders if he’s really done all the fact checking or if he just loves Talia that much to trust whatever she’s told him. She wonders herself. She has this feeling that Talia is withholding so much information, but they’re both in way too deep at this point.

“Do you think he would ever want to dissolve it too?”

Bruce shakes his head. “No.”

He leads Robin off the dance floor before the song has ended, and she is thankful for it. She’s a little tired and would like to lay down. On the other side of the room Talia and Bane are talking with a few other people. Robin is not ready to go over there yet, but instead Bruce leads her over to chairs set up against a wall.

He sits down next to her, and after a moment puts an arm around her shoulder. It’s so rare for him to show actual public displays of affection that she turns to look at him quick. Rachel had to beg and tease him until she could get genuine _handholding_.

It sounds silly now, especially since Talia could get Bruce to walk on his hands if she asked him. Bruce looks back at Robin, but he throws in a silly face, and Robin laughs before resting her head on his shoulder. She’s ruining the hairstyle Talia had been so insistent upon, but she knows they’ll be heading home soon.

“I miss her,” Robin says quietly. She doesn’t say who, but she knows her father is thinking of the right person.

Bruce’s posture sags. He leans his head against Robin’s and now she knows her hair is beyond saving. “I do too.”

She thinks about it, about Rachel’s death. Robin compartmentalizes so many things, but Rachel loved parties and loved them acting like a family, and Bruce and Robin were so bad at it at first. Robin had tried being grateful, but she was also angry and hated the world. Bruce wasn’t any better.

It was Rachel who saved Robin in all the ways that counted. She had been the one who wanted to adopt a child. And when the house had caught on fire in the middle of the night, Rachel had been the one to run and wake Robin up. Bruce hadn’t even been in the house. He had been out talking to the chief of police of all people, and raced home when he saw the flames in the distance.

Bruce found them on the second landing, and he would’ve killed himself trying to save them. It was Rachel who had yelled at Bruce to stop. And it was Rachel who threw Robin so hard forward in Bruce’s direction that she had bruises on her body for days afterward.

Bruce presses a dozen kisses against the top of Robin’s head, and sits up a little straighter. Neither of them like appearing weak in public, and she slowly schools her face back into a semblance of normalcy.

She is tired and wants to go home and sleep, but she is not about to cry in front of strangers over something that happened so many years ago. She catches Bane and Talia staring at them, and she very determinedly fixes her gaze on the dancers.

\---

With Bruce’s funds, an actual marriage contract is needed. For the first time since Talia arrived in their lives, Bruce doesn’t listen to Talia when she argues it’s not necessary. Robin knows Bruce wants to believe Talia, but then he looks at his daughter and he can’t. With his own funds, he has no fear of sharing it all with Talia. But with giving Robin away to a stranger, he can’t risk anything going wrong.

Bane comes over to sign the marriage contract. Their lawyers are there and Bruce had asked Robin if she wanted to be there, but she felt comfortable that her father and the lawyers could handle it. She’s sure she would be laughed right out of the room if she appeared. Five months pregnant and negotiating a marriage contract? None of them would take her seriously for a second.

At the last minute she panics and wants to sit in too. There’s space for her next to Bruce. He’s slouched over a second chair, and nobody had dared to ask Lord Bruce Wayne to move over. As soon as he sees her, he straightens up so she can sit next to him.

There are men who she’s never seen before, and she assumes they are Bane’s men. On behalf of her father, there are two men, John Daggett and Philip Stryver. Robin doesn’t mind Stryver, but Daggett talks a lot of shit when Bruce leaves the room. He has never liked Robin, and he certainly doesn’t like when Robin speaks up, and he has a tendency to call her a hothead a lot.

She’s never even raised her voice at him. He just latches onto any flaw he perceives. She tries so hard to keep herself in check during the meeting, but the baby starts moving so much. Bruce leaves at one point, and Daggett is so infuriating that Robin would like to leap across the table and gouge out his eyes.

She doesn’t.

She sits still. The baby starts doing somersaults, and she puts her hands on her stomach. She wants to fight, and the baby is just as energized. She’s going to fix this. She’s going to calm them both down.

When Bruce returns, she sighs and says, as quietly and demurely as she can, “Father, may I please have Mr. Daggett taken off of all of my accounts?”

Bruce nods his head, because of course he goes along with any of her requests. “Thank you for your work today, Mr. Daggett. Make sure to bill your hours.”

Daggett stutters, choking on nothing, before he looks at Robin. “What, no, no. That would be terrible for you.”

Robin is ready to actually yell at him the way she’s wanted to, but Bane says to Daggett, “No, I believe it would be terrible for you.”

Daggett is too afraid of Bane to say anything, and he’s not about to yell at Bruce, so he leaves in a huff.

\---

The marriage contract is set, and Robin is able to forget about it.

\---

Robin would like to stop going to parties. Bruce and Talia use them for reconnaissance because they’re crazy, but Robin is pregnant and would like to stay at home.

They leave her alone, and she encourages them. She would like to be by herself for a minute. She sits at a chair, doing her best to be unassuming while the party goes on around her. She has a book, and reads it to herself. She doesn’t even realize she has company until her light is obscured.

She looks up to see Daggett. He sips his drink calmly. He looks her up and down and then says, “It must be rough, carrying another bastard.”

Robin glares at him.

“Sorry, a ‘little brother.’”

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t you have other people to annoy? Other accounts to get kicked off of?”

He sits down on the chair next to her. He leans in halfway so he’s near her. “You know, I’m hurt that you took me off your accounts, but I’m sure Bane wouldn’t mind having someone informed on his.”

Robin turns to him quick. Daggett is smirking. He’s threatening her. She may not be Bruce’s heir, but her father is not going to let her get married without first making sure she’s going to be financially secure, regardless of whatever Bane’s assets look like. There will be funds that Bane will have access to, and there will be funds that Bane will never be allowed to touch.

But if Bane was really committed, if he had the right informants and the right people on the inside, he could ruin her financially. He could take all her money and leave her completely dependent on him.

If she ever wanted to leave him or divorce him, she would have no funds to help. She wouldn’t even have the funds to buy a loaf of bread. She’d have to sell off all her jewelry, and that would only be possible if Bane wasn’t feeling particularly cruel and didn’t steal those all away as well. She would have to crawl back to Wayne Manor, back to Bruce and his heirs, and beg them to help her.

Daggett takes a sip of his wine and walks away.

She doesn’t mention it to anyone. Bruce, Talia, and Bane are all there, and they probably saw Daggett talking to her, but she doesn’t repeat the things or cause a scene. She’s eight months pregnant, and Bane offers to take her for a walk in the garden.

She looks around to see if Bruce is watching, but she decides she doesn’t need a chaperone. She’s already pregnant as it is.

The gardens are all lit with candles. There are not many people outside, and she goes to sit on a bench. She wants to vent to him a little bit, despite the fact that she would then be giving him the power to destroy her.

“Daggett hates you,” Bane says without any prompting.

Robin nods. “He really just wants to move up in social classes. So you think he would be accepting of the fact that I moved up from the bottom to the top by a simple adoption, but no, that’s unacceptable to him.” Her child is busy kicking her ribcage, and she holds her stomach as if that will calm it down. “My birth father was an alcoholic and a gambler. And my adoptive father is a millionaire. I am the worst of trash in Daggett’s mind.”

Robin lets out a sigh. A couple hundred years ago the Wayne family name meant nothing. They were a bunch of laborers until one of them managed to get a chokehold on the coal and steel industry. Soon enough they were the ones with the money, and they married into the aristocracy. The Wayne Manor was built on top of dying, crumbling farmland.

On top of that, Talia is a countess from a country nobody has ever heard of, but nobody dares question her lineage. She is so wealthy and so intelligent that nobody would even dare to badmouth her name.

Once people have enough money, they’ve got enough power, and everyone conveniently forgets about the past.

Robin could be just as great as any of them. Give it time, and she could have her name on buildings around Gotham. Preferably hospitals, orphanages, and schools for the poorest of the city.

Bane is quiet. He looks back into the windows, people happily dancing and laughing. “I think it’s wise to be concerned by him. Talia has discussed how he handled your accounts when he was in charge. He puts your money toward risky investments.”

“It’s not actually just that,” Robin mumbles. She shrugs and raises her hands. “I’m well aware that Daggett hides behind a veneer of competence. He’s a total conman, and he’s good at hiding his tracks. I’m mostly concerned by him because he’s an asshole.”

Bane laughs. “He seems a simple man.”

“I just have a gut feeling. I don’t trust him. I’ve grown up around criminals. I’ve met Sal Maroni, and I would trust him before I trust Daggett because at least I know exactly what Maroni is offering.”

Bane turns his full gaze onto her. Frowning, he grips her chin and guides her full gaze onto him. “When did you meet Sal Maroni?”

“When I was eight.” Robin laughs and pulls away. “I saw him in a bakery and told him his men killed my father. He bought me a hot cross bun and told me to be careful with accusations.”

Bane shakes his head.

“I didn’t take his advice.”

\---

The next party they attend is hosted by the Cobblepots, and Robin pays attention. All the proud crime families of Gotham will be there. Perhaps it’s due to Bane’s concern, but she knows something is afoot.

The Maronis are there, and Robin has to laugh at their appearance. It’s like speaking them conjures them, but it’s not actually that much of a coincidence. The Cobblepots have their fingers in every scheme in the city, and the Maroni family is enormous. The Maronis have so many omegas, and they’ve always taken care of their own.

Their origins started in the very lowest of circles, in the Narrows. Like most poor families in Gotham, the Maronis took care of their omegas’ heats.

Alphas like to charge for their services, and what poor citizen could actually afford to pay another alpha for their child’s heat to be taken care of? None. Or to pay and be stuck with another alpha’s child when the alpha didn’t want to claim them? Out of the question.

The Maronis would have a dozen kids at any given time, both true born and bastards, and all those kids would grow up to be gangsters.

Robin used to attend church with them every Sunday, far in the back with the other orphans, while the Maronis would sit up front and wear their furs and rings to church as the priest spoke of grace and humility.

\---

Robin passes through the Cobblepot Estate quietly. Talia disappeared quite some time ago, and Bruce is busy antagonizing Lord Oswalt Cobblepot, pretending to be very drunk despite not being very drunk at all. Bruce does a good job of it.

Robin doesn’t get stopped. She’s pregnant, and none of the gangsters care about hurting a pregnant omega. They let her pass easily, asking every now and then if she’s fine. It’s nice in a way, but it’s not something they would’ve done if she was poor. They would’ve threatened her away, pregnant or not.

She’s got a knife hidden, just in case, but they look at her with sweet faces. It’s the pheromones most likely. She probably smells like milk and omega, and all they want to do is take care of her. She’s due any day, and she carries herself with a hand on her pregnancy bump at all times.

She’s not sure what she’s looking for. Something. Anything. She’s about to pass by a room when she sees light shining out from underneath the double doors. Several shadows pass through it, and Robin leans closer to the door. The door isn’t latched all the way, and she can hear people speaking.

Robin hears a woman’s voice, and she cranes her head.

“The Spada matter. Where do we stand?”

It’s Talia’s voice, and Robin’s jaw drops.

“Even now, the gold—"

“—The shipment?”

“Oh, oh, I, I'm sorry, Your Grace. The, uh…The shipment is in transit…uh, bound for Gotham.”

“And it arrives?”

“Not for another three weeks.”

The baby hasn’t been happy that it’s no longer able to turn however it pleases, and gives a sharp kick against Robin’s insides. She leans back, against the wall, and out comes a loud creak as soon as she leans up against the wood frame. She closes her eyes for a long moment. She’s been caught, and there is no point running.

The door opens, and out from the room comes one of the Cobblepot bastards. He’s ready to duel, but Robin simply smiles at him, or tries to as she pushes through the grimace.

“I’m lost,” she says. “I’ve been looking for a quiet place to sit down, but it seems everywhere is full.”

He’s in soldier attire, and puts away his sword. He is the most fortuitous of people to have been found by. She wagers she reminds him of his own birth parent, Oswald Cobblepot’s eldest daughter—the omega older sister who is supposed to pretend she isn’t actually his mother.

Talia comes out next, calculating and shrewd. It changes when she sees Robin. “What’s going on?”

“Talia,” Robin says, pretending to cheer up. “I’ve been looking for you. Bruce has had too much to drink. And I’m ready to go home.” She turns to the Cobblepot bastard. “Will you please lead me out to the carriages?”

He’s already nodding and taking her by the arm so he can escort her. He would likely carry Robin out if she would only ask.

\---

Two weeks later Daggett is found dead. It’s ruled as a suicide since it looks like a suicide. The authorities found him hanging by a noose in his house, chair kicked out from under him. But if rumor is to be believed, there were bruises the shapes of hands on his neck. That wasn’t in the official autopsy, so it’s merely a rumor.

Robin is ninety percent certain that Bane killed him, but she doesn’t know how to bring that up.

\---

The farther along in her pregnancy, the more tactile Talia gets. Robin is not sure if Bruce is blind to it or if he has accepted it. But Talia is always rubbing Robin’s stomach, or massaging her shoulders and feet. Eventually Talia encourages Robin to sleep in their same bed.

During Richard’s and Jason’s pregnancy, Bruce had sometimes slept in the same bed so Robin could be more comfortable. It was a simple alpha/omega thing. But Talia asks if Robin is feeling _lonely_.

It’s strange, but Robin doesn’t have enough of a voice to try fighting with Talia. So she sleeps in the master bedroom and Talia curls around Robin while Bruce sleeps on the other side. Occasionally it’ll be Bruce holding Robin close, but Talia is always just right there, reaching out a hand to hold Robin’s.

\---

When the baby is born, Talia coos over him. She takes to all of the boys very easily. She seems to like being a mother, but she’s also happy to hand them over to the nursemaids. She’s as maternal as most upper-class women, which is not that much, but she loves the children so Robin guesses that balances it all out.

Talia takes care to be in charge of the christening and all that goes with it. Robin is godmother to the first two boys, and she is godmother to this one as well. But Talia parades around the baby just as any normal mother would do with her child.

\---

Talia kisses Robin way too much. Truly, it’s not even a familial kiss. Bruce kisses her sometimes on the mouth during a heat, but Talia full out shoves her tongue in there and leaves Robin breathless. And that’s just before lunch. That’s just a “thanks for being a good person” kiss.

And heaven forbid Talia be left alone with Robin during a heat. Sure, Bruce sticks his cock inside of her, but it’s almost perfunctory. He always does the exact same position, rolls his hips the same way each time, always flips her over while he knots her. He’ll kiss her once or twice, filthy the way Talia does, when the heat gets to him too. But that’s it.

Talia though, she’s got imagination. She’ll use her fingers and a phallus. She’s strapped a phallus onto a leather strap and fucked Robin like that. She’s had Robin on her hands and knees with her ass raised up in the air so she could fuck her deeper. She’s used her _mouth_ on Robin.

She’s sure Bruce and Talia have done those things together, but Robin is more than a little shocked by it when Talia does these things with her.

And then the most embarrassing moments are when Talia makes Robin actually work for a knot. She makes Robin do the hard work and climb on top of Bruce. And Bruce is always just there, patient, encouraging, telling Robin to, “Do whatever you think feels right.”

Robin’s brain sort of switches off when that happens.

Talia is there behind Robin, guiding her hips. Or wilder, in front of her, sitting naked on Bruce like it’s perfectly normal, as she guides Robin to an orgasm. Talia, with her perfect body, telling Robin she looks beautiful, worshipping Robin while she’s on top of her father’s cock.

Robin has to shut off the part of her brain saying this is strange. She just gives into the heat and does it and tries not to moan too load when Talia kisses her, touches her breasts, rubs her fingers against Robin’s cunt.

Robin’s prim and proper personality can’t handle it, but she does her best.

\---

Halfway through the engagement, she almost considers rushing the marriage. Bruce and Talia keep giving her more and more duties to do with maintaining the household or looking over business transactions, but it’s not enough. She’s bored.

Bane has visited and nonchalantly promised that Robin would have more things to do when married to him, more to oversee. It’s sort of an empty promise because Robin doesn’t know if he actually will, but Talia has promised Bane would keep his word.

She visits Bane prior to the marriage, with chaperones of course, but it doesn’t matter. Or maybe it would. If Robin and Bane were to have sex, and a baby resulted shortly after, there would be some disputes on who is the father of the baby.

She visits a couple of times when she’s pregnant, and Bane is very patient and kind when dealing with her. He patronizes her a little bit, and she snaps at him sometimes, but it never pushes him over the edge.

Sometimes she thinks he riles her up just because it amuses him. She has worried about marrying an alpha who would hit her, but despite the fact that Bane could break a man with his bare hands, he’s gentle with her. He’s never lost his patience or threatened her with violence.

During her fourth pregnancy, she is at his estate when the baby starts kicking and the sensation could be felt from the outside. In a moment of excitement, she grabs his hands and places them on her stomach. She grins so hard, and minutes pass before either of them move.

Robin talks at a rapid speed, cataloguing every little movement, and Bane smiles and keeps his hands fully on her stomach until she finally lets them go.

Their chaperones frown so hard at both of them, but Robin simply rolls her eyes at them. Even if it was inappropriate, it wasn’t as if Robin had kissed Bane or went and had sex with him, and it wasn’t like he could get her in any sort of trouble since she was already very pregnant.

There was no act of violation, no inappropriate intimacy. She had invited him to put his hands on her stomach to feel the first stages of _life_ being created.

\---

Talia’s prediction is right. Robin gives Bruce a total of five children. Both Talia and Bruce are overjoyed.

\---

Robin marries Bane five years after the marriage contract was drawn up.

She’s a little heartbroken saying goodbye to her brothers and sister. She gave birth to them, and she nursed them, and she feels like she raised them. They’re not her children, but they are. She gave birth to five miniature little Robins. They have her smile. They have her wit. They have her temper. They have her patience. They have all of her good qualities and all of the bad.

Legally they’re Bruce’s children. He provides for them.

But she wakes up in the middle of the night when the nursemaid doesn’t hear them. She lets them cuddle with her. She keeps them close when they’re sick. She tells them stories and keeps them entertained. She lets them know how much they’re loved when Bruce and Talia have to go away for business.

\---

After the wedding, after the reception, after the visitors finally go home, after her family leaves, Bane seems calm and reserved. His estate is vast and empty, and she can’t decide if she likes how quiet it is without the sounds of children screaming and yelling, and Talia and Bruce loudly arguing—because even when they’re just discussing things, they’re loud.

Bane isn’t at all as flirtatious as Talia. She would like to say Bane was a gentleman, but he doesn’t have much of a care for most formalities, and her own father is a gentleman and can be talked into a lot of filthy things by Talia very easily.

Regardless, she assumes her husband is much less of a sex fiend than Talia and Bruce. He doesn’t have any signs of being the way Talia is, able to seduce at a moment’s notice.

Bruce and Talia had left her alone through her last few heats so there would be no disputes over who fathered any new children. Bruce had been her alpha almost her entire life, and Talia had helped in playing that role just as much. It had been lonely being alone during those last few heats, but also somehow calm. Almost peaceful to be by herself.

\---

The first night of marriage alone without her family in the home, Robin wakes up in the middle of the night and she can’t stop thinking about them. She ends up crying. She’s so close to Bane, and it’s no surprise when he wakes up too. He curls closer to her, and she lets him hold her.

“You regret this?”

She shakes her head. It has only been one night away from her family. She hasn’t had time to decide if she regrets the marriage yet. “I miss them.”

“Talia and Bruce?”

Robin snorts. Yes, she misses them, but she doesn’t need to worry about them. “I do. But I miss the little ones most.”

She expects Bane to say something stupid like, ‘We will have more children. Don’t worry,’ but he understands her. He cups her chin and nods his head.

“You are their mother in everything but title. It’s only natural to miss your children.”

And that makes Robin cry even more. But Bane holds her. She thinks he might get tired and decide to fall asleep, but he stays awake with her. They’re naked, because they had sex before falling asleep, and neither had bothered to put clothes back on. Bane’s arms are strong around her.

Eventually she stops crying, and she pushes up so she can kiss him. She kisses him the way Talia taught her, with tongue and pressure, and soon Bane is left breathless and chasing after her mouth.

She puts a hand on Bane’s cock, and strokes it the way Talia showed her to stroke Bruce’s until he’s hard. She straddles Bane the way she learned from lessons on top of Bruce and on top of Talia, lowers herself until she takes all of his cock, and rocks against him. She’s not in the middle of a heat, and he’s not in a rut, but he knots her.

In the middle of it, Bane looks up at her. “Do you want another baby?”

She can’t speak. She does. It would be nice to be able to hold a baby in her arms and call them _hers_ , not little brother, not little sister. She nods and closes her eyes, doing her best not to break from the size of his knot. “I do.”

Bane sits up, shifting his knot inside of her and making her gasp, but he holds her in his arms. He brushes a hand over her hair. He kisses her brow.

She opens her eyes so she can see him. Leans in so she can kiss him properly. She cups his face and keeps his mouth right on hers so she can press every promise of devotion into each kiss.

Yes, she wants her own children. She wants a dozen of them, some from her own blood, some adopted. She wants to put all that gold Bane and Talia have to good use. She wants to fix her city. She knows exactly where she’ll start.

Afterward, she still feels a small amount of melancholy. But she can sleep now, and Bane holds her so very close. She still doesn’t know him very well. She’s done as much snooping as she could and it still isn’t enough.

She feels like there are dark, dark secrets in both Talia and Bane’s past that neither will ever speak of. He kept Talia safe, that much she knows. And now Bane is her alpha, and she can only hope he will guard her in whatever manner he did for Talia.

But she thinks he will protect her. Cherish her. Keep her safe.

It is such a pathetically childish request, and yet she feels it is the most important of all.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not sure if I would ever make an actual prequel or sequel of this fic, because while I did leave it sort of mysterious at the end, I actually do not have anything more to add. This plot was entirely fueled by porn. But I do feel like putting in a bit of a headcanon for Talia that I probably won’t explore. I also see her very much as a Monte Cristo sort of character ([Exhibit A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENNLHMQbP48) and [Exhibit B](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dXxTAu2RCM)). That’s why Bruce and Robin can’t find shit on her or Bane—because they largely created their persona and wealth out of nothing.
> 
> Prequel Notes:
> 
> Talia’s mother had been a warlord’s daughter, and Talia’s mother had sex with Ra’s before marriage, and by law all children prior to the union were property of the warlord. Who, of course, was disgusted with the idea of helping any of his omega children through heats, because that’s not something acceptable in that particular culture. In Gotham (and technically the rest of Europe, western society) it’s the norm. 
> 
> In the warlord’s land, it’s not. 
> 
> Omegas should be virtuous and remain pure during their heats before marriage. The story is then the same. The warlord swapped Ra’s with his daughter in the Pit. But in a fit of anger he had the doctor make sure Talia was sterilized. Obviously, he hadn’t fathered Talia, but he didn’t care. There were morals and standards and he was just too disgusted with anyone thinking that about him. 
> 
> Bane met her there, and kept her safe and protected her, and when Talia was old enough to search out her own father, she did. They escaped together in this one. Ra’s had no other children, and Talia was legitimized. They reclaimed her place that the warlord had tried to deny her. She claimed the small fortune that was left, and her and Bane did what they had to rise up from the ashes. They have quite a few enemies, and have way more secrets. 
> 
> In this fic, Bruce married Rachel instead of becoming a complete hot mess out in the world. Probably still did a lot of shit, got trained a little by Ra’s before realizing, “Wait, I have a future wife I’ve already promised! I need to go back home or I risk ruining her reputation,” and came back for his marriage before getting in too deep with the League of Shadows. And Ra’s died by someone else’s hand.
> 
> So, Talia never had a reason to hate Bruce. She heard about him and his adopted daughter, and decided she wanted to see them. She liked how Bruce took care of Robin during heats. She especially liked how he legitimized his and Robin’s children. A lot of alphas don’t do that. They take care of their omega children, but they don’t consider the resulting offspring from any heats their actual heirs. They’ll raise them with the other kids, but then they might send them away to relatives or boarding schools. They’ll expect them to do well and get a good career, but most upper-class alphas are more concerned by children produced by an actual married couple.
> 
> Talia doesn’t know why exactly Bruce treats these children better than most would. She doesn’t know if he’s secretly in love with his adopted daughter, or if he’s so heartbroken over his last wife that he has accepted he won’t remarry and these are the only biological children he’ll ever have, but she really doesn’t care.
> 
> Bruce treats his sons the way Talia wished her own grandfather had treated her. And she takes one look at Robin and is reminded of her mother’s sad eyes and sweet smile and she goes, “oh, this is going to be my new family,” and decides to set Bane up with Robin so she knows Robin will be well taken care of too.
> 
> \---
> 
> Also, I do headcanon a certain actress for female Robin. [Courtney Eaton](https://www.funweek.it/app/uploads/2018/01/courtney-eaton-1278500-200x300.jpeg) is my go to, but it always changes.
> 
> I don’t know, but I always think John Blake and Talia’s mother bear a little bit of a resemblance. John Blake maybe isn’t as pretty as Talia’s mother, but it’s like that Star Wars quote, “if you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people.”


End file.
